Article 43
Bad Moon Rising
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Lend-Lease Act of 2022
In May 2022 the U.S. Department of Defense REPORTED:
President Joe Biden signed into law the “UKRAINE DEMOCRACY DEFENSE LEND-LEASE ACT OF 2022.”
The act authorizes the administration, through fiscal year 2023, to lend or lease military equipment to Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. The act would exempt the administration from certain provisions of law that govern the loan or lease of military equipment to foreign countries, such as the five-year limit on the duration of the loan or the requirement that receiving countries pay all costs incurred by the United States in leasing the defense equipment.
A few months LATER:
President Joe Biden has signed the Fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act into law allotting $816.7 billion to the Defense Department.
The act authorizes the full fiscal year 2023 budget request for the European Deterrence Initiative and extends and modifies the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. It authorizes $800 million in fiscal year 2023, an increase of $500 million above the initial budget request.
More importantly, the act expresses the sense of Congress that the United States’ commitment to NATO is ironclad, and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a unified response to Russia’s unjust war in Ukraine and other shared security challenges, according to a release on the Senate Armed Services Committee website. The Senate release also stressed that the U.S. must continue to assist Ukraine in its fight against the unjust and unprovoked attack by Russia.
The act looks to provide long-term aid to Ukraine especially in waiving restrictions related to contracts for munitions to support Ukraine or to increase DOD’s stocks of critical munitions. It also provides multi-year procurement authority for certain munitions.
The budget for fiscal year 2023 ENDS IN A FEW DAYS - September 30, 2023. Will the billions government is throwing at Ukraine end?
At this time of the year, the millionaire rulers of our country feign the government is broke, and threaten to shut it down.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s political theater to scare us and move more money away from public spending, and into the hands of corporate America and the military - expanding inequality, suffering, and sorrow for the people they claim to represent.
Today, world war three is knocking on our planet’s poor thanks in no small part to President Biden not opting for peace talks with Russian President Putin.
So I’m guessing billions more U.S. $$$ will be slotted to kill others - more money will be poured into into the Russia-Ukraine war, fear of China, and more money taken out of the safety net, ie: the mouths of starving, homeless, disabled, poor, and down-on-their-luck Americans.
And while the Federal Reserve raises interest rates resulting in you and I paying more for just about everything - lying thru its teeth that too much money is floating around - it pumped $300 BILLION in to the economy to save the rich from loosing a little of their wealth.
US government pays billions in uninsured bank deposits to Silicon Valley oligarchs and venture capital firms
Other countries are building fallout shelters (like WE HAD in the 60s) for their citizens.
eg FINLAND:
Most of the time, this is a family-friendly sports centre. Above ground, the only visible clue to its second identity is a small orange and blue triangle on the wall by the entrance that states: “VAESTONSUOJA SKYDDSRUM, or “defence shelter”. In the event of an emergency, the arena would revert to being the Merihaka bomb shelter, a subterranean living quarters where up to 6,000 people could exist for weeks, or even months.
How prepared ARE WE:
The United States and its citizens are not currently prepared for the after effects of a nuclear disaster of any type, whether an air missile from another nation, an attack on the ground from a terrorist or terrorist group, or some kind of accidental detonation. Instead of just lording over us for ever, however, the billionaires at the top of these virtual pyramids actively seek the endgame.
Section Bad Moon Rising • Section Dying America • Section Fascism •
View (0) comment(s) or add a new one •
Printable view • Link to this article •
Home •
Friday, May 19, 2023
Bad Moon Rising Part 93 - De-Dollarization
“For now, and for the foreseeable next few years, I think the trade using RMB will predominantly be used for commodity and energy trade,” predicted Chi Lo, senior investment strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management.
- China receives first yuan-settled LNG cargo, RT, May 18, 2023---
De-Dollarization Ramps Up As China Receives First Yuan-Settle LNG Shipment
By Mac Slavo
SHTF Plan
May 18, 2023
The global worldwide de-dollarization continues to ramp up. China has now received its first yuan-settled LNG (liquid natural gas) shipment. The United States dollar’s life is dwindling.
The state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced on Tuesday. The company said it purchased 65,000 tons of LNG from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and paid in yuan, not U.S. dollars.
RT:
The move is the latest sign of the yuan’s growing presence on the international stage, as conditions for settling oil and gas trade in the Chinese currency become increasingly mature, CNOOC said. As part of its de-dollarization strategy, Beijing has been promoting settlements in currencies other than the US dollar and euro.
“For now, and for the foreseeable next few years, I think the trade using RMB will predominantly be used for commodity and energy trade,” predicted Chi Lo, senior investment strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management. “This is a very long-term development stretching into the coming one or two, even three decades” as more nations join the “RMB BLOC” to reduce risks of dollar exposure, especially after they’ve seen what the U.S.-led sanctions against Russia have done, he added.
The proportion of Russian import settlements in yuan during 2022 surged to 23% from 4% the previous year. The U.S. is systematically destroying itself in an effort to build an empire. So much for the “land of the free.” Other nations have figured it out and are pushing back. This is bad news for the dollar, especially as the U.S. sits close to the precipice of defaulting on its massive debt because the ruling class cannot stop spending, stealing, and evaluating the fiat currency it continues to create out of thin air.
Be ready, because if something economic happens, many are not in a “prepared” place for that.
Section Bad Moon Rising •
View (0) comment(s) or add a new one •
Printable view • Link to this article •
Home •
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Bad Moon Rising Part 92 - The Brazil-China Relationship
Short of a sudden and widespread popular REVOLT, which DOES NOT SEEM LIKELY, the death spiral appears unstoppable, meaning the United States as we know it will no longer exist within a decade or, at most, two. The global vacuum we leave behind will be filled by China, already establishing itself as an economic and military juggernaut, or perhaps there will be a multipolar world carved up among Russia, China, India, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa and a few other states.
- Bad Moon Rising Part 69 - The End Of Empire, 2017
Brasilia, October 21, 2020: During his two-day visit to Brazil, the U.S. National Security Adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, was accompanied by the largest economic-focused, high-level delegation from the U.S. government in decades. The meetings held with senior Brazilian government officials and private sector leaders addressed a broad spectrum of bilateral issues, including deepening our cooperation to promote economic growth, improve the investment climate, security, and to continue working to address regional challenges, among others. The United States and Brazil announced a historic, gold standard Protocol on Transparency and Trade Rules which starts a new chapter in the two countries’ economic relationship by boosting trade and job creation in Brazil and the United States.
- The United States and Brazil Strengthen Economic and Bilateral Ties, 2020
[T]he conflict in UKRAINE has accelerated the rise of a new international order in which American dominance is losing its attraction. US actions in Ukraine have driven together its two greatest adversaries, Russia and China, whom along with India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Brazil, South Africa and dozens of other countries comprising most of the world’s population are giving rise to the world’s largest and most dynamic trading bloc - and the US is not part of it. In only the past few days, two important events gave further impetus to this trend: Brazil and China reached a deal to trade using their own currencies rather than the US dollar, while China’s national oil company CNOOC and France’s TotalEnergies completed China’s first LNG trade settled in yuan.
- The Fall of America’s Benevolent Empire, 2023---
Brazil’s Lula travels to China and calls to end US dollar dominance
Brazil’s President Lula da Silva took a historic trip to China, where he signed many cooperation agreements and pledged to challenge the dominance of the US dollar.
By Ben Norton
Geopolitical Economy
April 15, 2023
Brazils left-wing President Luiz InҒcio Lula da Silva, known popularly as Lula, took a historic trip to China this April.
There, the two countries deepened their comprehensive strategic partnership, SIGNING 15 AGREEMENTS involving trade, scientific research, technology, renewable energy, agriculture, meat production, finance, the digital economy, communications, the media, the fight against poverty and hunger, and even the joint development of satellites and space cooperation.
China pledged investments estimated at around $50 billion Brazilian reais. Symbolically, under one of the deals, a Brazilian factory previously run by US automaker Ford will instead by operated by the Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD.
Lula’s meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing came just weeks after CHINA AND BRAZIL reached a deal to USE THEIR LOCAL CURRENCIES IN BILATERAL TRADE, EXCLUDING THE US DOLLAR.
While visiting China, Lula made it clear that de-dollarization is a top priority for his country.
“Every night I ask myself why all countries have to base their trade on the dollar”, Lula said, according to a REPORT IN THE FINANCIAL TIMES.
“Why can’t we do trade based on our own currencies?” the Brazilian leader asked. “Who was it that decided that the dollar was the currency after the disappearance of the gold standard?”
Many US politicians were outraged by the historic de-dollarization agreement between China and Brazil.
Neoconservative Republican SENATOR MARCO RUBIO FUMED ON FOX NEWS:
Today, Brazil in our hemisphere, the largest country in the western hemisphere south of us ֖ cut a trade deal with China. They’re going to, from now on, do trade in their own currencies, and get right around the dollar.
They’re creating a secondary economy in the world, totally independent of the United States.
We won’t have to talk sanctions in five years, because there will be so many countries transacting in currencies other than the dollar, that we won’t have the ability to sanction them.
Lula, now in his third term as president, was unfazed by the criticism in Washington.
The Brazilian leftist leader has already publicly pledged to CREATE A NEW CURRENCY for trade in Latin America. He stated clearly that the goal is to weaken the region’s “dependence on the US dollar”.
“Who decided that our currencies were weak, that they didn’t have value in other countries?” Lula asked while in China.
“Why cant a bank like that of the BRICS have a currency to finance trade relations between Brazil and China, between Brazil and other countries?” he continued. “It’s difficult because we are unaccustomed [to the idea]. Everyone depends on just one currency”.
Lula made these remarks criticizing US dollar hegemony in a speech for the New Development Bank (NDB), the financial institution birthed by the BRICS bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
Lula was one of the creators of the BRICS, back when it was previously just the BRIC. The leftist Brazilian president co-founded the group during his first two terms in office, which ran from the beginning of 2003 to the end of 2010.
The NDB was meant as an alternative to the US-dominated World Bank, which is notorious for imposing devastating austerity measures and neoliberal economic reforms on countries in the Global South.
On April 12, Lula flew into Shanghai, where the NDB is located. He was the first foreign head of state to visit the BRICS bank’s headquarters.
There, Lula was greeted by his successor, Brazil’s former President Dilma Rousseff, a fellow member of the left-wing Workers’ Party.
DILMA IS NOW PRESIDENT OF THE NEW DEVELOPMENT BANK. There, she has pledged to use the institution to fund high-quality “sustainable development” to fight climate change and “promote social inclusion”.
Dilma said the NDB plans to finance “critical and strategic infrastructure projects” like ports, airports, and highways, as well as “more modern models of transportation”, such as high-speed trains, in underdeveloped countries in the Global South.
Um grande dia para o Brasil e os Brics. Participando da posse da querida amiga @dilmabr como presidenta do Novo Banco de Desenvolvimento.
@ricardostuckert
- LULA (@LulaOficial) April 13, 2023
Lula’s trip to China was his first state visit outside of the Americas in his third term.
The Brazilian president traveled to the United States in February, but only for one day. In contrast, Lula spent four days in China - a symbol of how important their alliance is.
”NO ONE WILL PROHIBIT BRAZIL from improving its relationship with China”, Lula said during his trip, in a clear message to the United States.
Lula also visited the research center of China’s tech giant HUAWEI, which has been unilaterally sanctioned by the US - another message to Washington.
Brazilian’s Minister of Finance Fernando Haddad, who joined Lula in China, explained that their goal is “REINDUSTRIALIZING BRAZIL IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CHINESE CAPITAL”.
Reporting on the historic trip, S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE NOTED (emphasis added):
The 20 new agreements have a broad scope, indicating that the Lula administration is looking to prioritize deepening economic ties with China. Lula’s visit to mainland China, which was postponed due to illness, had been planned to last five days and would have included a delegation of around 200 business representatives, compared with the one day that Lula spent in the United States in February, with no clear agreements reached.
China is Brazil’s largest trading partner
When Lula ended his second term at the end of 2010, he was one of the most popular leaders in world history, with a staggering 87% APPROVAL RATING.
Lula and his successor Dilma transformed the country. In a speech in China, Lula boasted that their Workers’ Party-led governments helped lift 36 million Brazilians out of extreme poverty, taking Brazil off of the UN Hunger Map for the first time in history.
In 2002, the year before Lula entered office, Brazils GDP PPP was $1.72 trillion; when he left, it was $2.8 trillion.
Today, Brazil has the eighth-biggest economy on Earth, when measured with purchasing power parity (PPP). It is even bigger than the economies of France and Britain.
When Lula was previously president, Brazil had become the sixth largest, but following a US-backed political coup, Brazil’s economy suffered from years of right-wing rule and aggressive neoliberal policies that devastated the country and fueled deindustrialization.
China has the world’s largest economy, when measured with purchasing power parity. It is also among the top two most populous countries (India’s population is expected to overtake China’s in 2023).
For its part, Brazil is the most populous country in Latin America, and the seventh-most populous on Earth.
China has been Brazils top trading partner since 2009. Commercial exchange between the two giants has SKYROCKETED IN THE LAST TWO DECADES.
The Brazilian government boasted that their bilateral trade increased by a staggering 21 times since Lula’s first visit to China in 2004.
In 2022, China and Brazil did US$150.4 billion in trade. From 2021 to 2022 alone, their bilateral trade grew by 10.1%.
What is unique about this relationship is that Brazil has a significant trade surplus with China, exporting roughly $90 billion in 2022 while importing approximately $60 billion.
In fact, Brazil exports three times more to China what it sells to the United States. (Brazil has a trade deficit with the US.)
Brazil is a commodities powerhouse.
The South American nation is the worlds second-biggest exporter of iron ore.
Brazil is also among the top 10 biggest oil producers. As of 2021, it produced more oil even than Iran, representing roughly 4% of global output.
US-backed political coups in 2016 and 2018 damaged Brazil’s economy
Under the rule of the Workers Party, Brazil had established itself as the sixth-largest economy on Earth.
But years of US meddling pushed the South American giant into recession and stagnation.
A huge drop in commodities prices in 2014 caused significant economic problems. This crash was intentionally pushed by the United States, which MASSIVELY EXPANDED ITS OWN SHALE PRODUCTION while PRESSURING SAUDI ARABIA TO OVERPRODUCE OIL to collapse crude prices on the global market, in an effort to hurt the economies of major oil producers Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.
“OIL WAR”: How US and Saudi crashed crude prices to hurt Russia, Iran, Venezuela in 2014
Dilma governed from 2011 until 2016, when she was overthrown in a political coup backed by the United States, impeached on an absurd budgetary technicality that far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro regularly engaged in.
Lula was subsequently imprisoned in 2018, on fraudulent charges overseen by the corrupt judge Sergio Moro, as part of the lawfare (judicial warfare) campaign known as Lava Jato (Operation Car Wash), which was funded by the US Justice Department and overseen by the State Department.
Brazil’s top court later dropped all charges against Lula. Even the UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE determined that Lula’s civil rights and due process guarantees had been violated.
But the imprisonment of Lula on false pretenses, under Washington’s watch, essentially handed the 2018 election to the fascistic Bolsonaro, who openly praised Brazil’s previous extreme-right, US-backed dictatorship, as well as the fascist junta of Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
Bolsonaro rewarded Moro, the judge who jailed Lula, by appointing him as his “super justice minister”. BOLSONARO AND MORO THE PROMPTLY VISITED CIA HEADQUARTERS in Langley, Virginia, to thank the notorious US spy agency.
The US supported the soft coup against Brazil’s President Dilma in 2016
Then Lula was imprisoned on fake charges before the 2018 election
Lula was sentenced by corrupt judge and US asset Sergio Moro
Bolsonaro and Moro then VISITED CIA HEADQUARTERS
- BEN NORTON (@BenjaminNorton) January 2, 2023
Under Bolsonaro, Brazils foreign policy was totally subordinated to Washington. He eagerly recognized US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaido as the so-called “interim president of Venezuela”, and even supported cross-border terror attacks on the country’s leftist Chavista government.
The geopolitically motivated 2014 commodities crash, US-backed political coups in 2016 and 2018, and six subsequent years of right-wing rule devastated BrazilԒs economy.
This led to what was essentially a lost decade. The country is only recovering today.
Lula says the NDB offers |extraordinary hope” to “become the great bank of the Global South”.
On April 13, Lula met with New Development Bank officials in Shanghai. The Brazilian government published an official TRANSCRIPTOF HIS REMARKS.
Lula recalled that the 2008 financial crash was caused by “greed” and risky financial speculation. Today the crises continue, Lula noted, with large banks like Credit Suisse collapsing.
“I think the world has never needed an instrument to help in the world’s development as much as it needs it now”, he said of the NDB.
In light of this instability, the NDB offers “extraordinary hope”, Lula argued.
“We have to be more concerned with serving the countries that are most in need of money”, the Brazilian president said. He argued that their goal should be to |help the neediest and poorest countries”.
“I hope that this bank is able to lend money for the development of the African continent. I hope that this bank is able to have money to lend to the poorest countries in Latin America”, he urged.
Bom dia no Brasil! Em Xangai, participei da posse de @dilmabr como presidenta do Novo Banco de Desenvolvimento dos Brics e visitei a fbrica da Huawei. O NBD uma grande iniciativa para um desenvolvimento mais equilibrado do mundo.
@ricardostuckert
- LULA (@LulaOficial) April 13, 2023
While in China, Lula TWEETED:
It is a dream of developing countries to have an instrument that invests in their development.
During the 8 years I was in the presidency, I tried to create a Bank in the South, which would allow investment in the necessary things in our region, without submitting to the rules of the IMF.
The BRICS Bank represents a lot for those who dream of a new world.
The dream of creating the BRICS was for an instrument of development, which will certainly be strong, with the goal of benefiting countries. If not, we will never have the poorest countries be able to develop themselves.
It would not be fair if we ended the 21st century as we started the 20th century, with those who were rich getting richer and those who were poor getting poorer.
As Dilma Rousseff was officially sworn in as director of the New Development Bank, Lula delivered ANOTHER SPEECH
He said the NDB has potential to “become the great bank of the Global South”, praising it as a “tool for reducing inequalities between rich countries and emerging countries”, which could help prevent “social exclusion, hunger, extreme poverty, and forced migration”.
“Many developing countries are accumulating unpayable debts”, Lula warned.
“The unmet financing needs of developing countries were and remain enormous”, he added.
Lula called the NDB a “milestone” in South-South cooperation.
“For the first time, a development bank with global reach was established without the participation of developed countries in its initial phase”, the Brazilian leader said.
The NDB is “free, therefore, from the shackles of conditionalities imposed by traditional institutions on emerging economies. And more: with the possibility of financing projects in local currency”, he continued.
Lula explained, “The creation of this Bank shows that the union of emerging countries is capable of generating relevant social and economic changes for the world. We don’t want to be better than anyone else. We want opportunities to expand our potential and guarantee dignity, citizenship and quality of life to our peoples”.
“The New Development Bank has great transformative potential, as it frees emerging countries from submission to traditional financial institutions, which try to govern us, without having a mandate to do so”, he added.
Lula noted that, in Brazil, the NDB has helped finance infrastructure projects, income support programs, sustainable transportation, climate change adaptation, sanitation services, and renewable energies.
Referring to the former Brazilian president affectionately as “comrade Dilma”, Lula emphasized that her new global leadership role is an important accomplishment for womens representation.
He also noted Dilma’s revolutionary struggles in the 1970s “to put into practice the dream of a better world”. Dilma had been a guerrilla in an armed socialist group that sought to overthrow Brazil’s US-backed fascist dictatorship, and she was imprisoned and tortured.
Lula explained:
“The time when Brazil was absent from major world decisions is in the past. We are back on the international stage, after an inexplicable absence. We have a lot to contribute to key issues of our time, such as mitigating the climate crisis and fighting hunger and inequality.”
“It is intolerable that, on a planet that produces enough food to meet the needs of all humanity, hundreds of millions of men, women and children have nothing to eat.”
It is inadmissible that the irresponsibility and greed of a small minority put the survival of the planet and of all humanity at risk.
Brazil is back. With the willingness to contribute again to the construction of a more developed, fairer and environmentally sustainable world.
In another BRAZILLIAN GOVERNMENT STATEMENT, Lula stated:
We want the Brazil-China relationship to transcend the trade issue; we want to have a deep relationship in science and technology; partnerships between universities to have more Brazilian students in China, and more Chinese students in Brazil.
We count on China in our fight for the preservation of planet earth, defending a healthier climate policy. That is why an energy transition is extremely important, so that we can produce cleaner energy, especially wind, solar, and biomass energy.
Brazil is committed to achieving, by 2030, zero deforestation in the Amazon, and to making our contribution to preserving the planet.
We are convinced that the development of Brazilian agriculture does not need irresponsible deforestation, let alone fires. Brazil can practically double its agricultural production by recovering degraded land, without having to cut down a single tree.
For his part, Chinese President Xi said:
China has a strategic and far-reaching relationship with Brazil, which has a place of priority in our foreign relations. You are our longtime friend.
The Brazil-China relationship, in healthy and stable development, will play an important role for peace, stability, and mutual development, for both countries and the world.
Section Bad Moon Rising • Section Revelations • Section NWO •
View (0) comment(s) or add a new one •
Printable view • Link to this article •
Home •
Tuesday, April 04, 2023
Bad Moon Rising Part 91 - The Dollar Dies
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
- Revelation 17:12-17
Translation: “The Lord will keep our top ten corporations here making them give their economic strength to America. However, they in fact hate our government and will eventually take their economic base and related jobs overseas. Thereby will they consume America’s pride, and destroy our financial reputation. Whereas He has put it in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree to give their economic strength to America, but only until His Prophecies are fulfilled.
- Vince Diehl, 1990
In another indication that China is growing increasingly concerned about holding huge dollar reserves, the head of its central bank has called for the eventual creation of a new international currency reserve to replace the dollar… In a paper released Monday, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the Peoples Bank of China, said a new currency reserve system controlled by the International Monetary Fund could prove more stable and economically viable.
- The Next Depression Part 29, 2009---
Since the Russian-Ukraine war started, and the United States - AS USUAL - stuck its nose in, the dollar’s been WEAPONIZED.
The economic sanctions the WARMONGERS here at home did to hurt Russia financially - besides paving the way for our allies to flee - is gonna be the dollar’s undoing.
Sanctions hurt everyday people - the poor the worst - not Putin, politicians, or rich Russians, or the vampires at home squeezing us dry with inflation and interest rate hikes.
When the dollar dies, inflation will skyrocket because the dollar will loose value against every other currency.
I can’t begin to imagine the hardships you and I will endure when the price of imports shoots up.
In this case, the rest of the world is starting to drop the dollar as the currency of choice - and world reserve. This will cause inflation to skyrocket, and for once it won’t be because of greedy corporations and politicians in their pockets.
But I’m pretty sure the people in the White House aren’t gonna let that happen WITHOUT A FIGHT.
The Intel Drop WRITES:
Experts say the United States’ use of economic sanctions is “backfiring” as it leads to a “look East” strategy that was seen when China brokered a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia to resume diplomatic relations.
According to Slavin, the deal may be part of a “look East” strategy as IRAN AND SAUDI ARABIA as the two main oil producers are enhancing ties with China which is the biggest oil consumer.
She also said that the trend could potentially lead to “de-dollarization” in the next years as oil producers may consider selling their products in yuans.
Experts have in recent years pointed to the ineffectiveness of sanctions as China has emerged as an equal rival to the US in the international financial market. In a major development this week, China and Brazil cut a deal to ditch the US dollar when paying each other for trade goods.
Tom Luongo WRITES:
IF WE’VE LEARNED NOTHING ELSE over the past year of war in Ukraine it is that most of the world is unphased by threats by the US by the countries I’ve just discussed. Iran clearly doesn’t care. China understands that if Russia falls militarily, China is next. Saudi Arabia and the rest of OPEC+ understand who their future trade partners really are.
---
BRICS common currency soon? India, China step up to counter US dollar’s dominance
By Mukul Sharma
WION News
April 3, 2023
The dominance of US dollar in global trade is facing a significant challenge as emerging global economies, such as China and India, step forward to trade in their own currencies. Besides, countries either seen as aligned or neutral by the West in terms of the ongoing Russian offensive in Ukraine, are increasingly banding together to focus on mutual global finance.
BRICS currency to challenge US dollar’s dominance?
The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries are reportedly exploring the creation of a common currency for trade amongst themselves. A new financial arrangement, seen with a potential to translate into a common BRICS currency, could be announced as soon as in August 2023 at the forthcoming BRICS summit in South Africa.
While speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum event in New Delhi, India, last week, Alexander Babakov, the deputy chairman of Russian parliament the State Duma, said that the plan is to initially transition to using domestic currencies in transactions. Following this, the introduction and circulation of a digital or an alternative form of currency could be explored. The potential introduction of a common BRICS currency is significant given the bilateral differences between India and China due to ongoing military standoff along the Line of Actual Control between the two Asian giants.
Babakov pointed out that the BRICS leaders summit will reveal a preparedness to implement this particular initiative, with work on the project ongoing, Russian news agency Sputnik reported.
“The US dollar plays a far too dominant role in global finance,” Jim ONeill, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief economist who coined the acronym BRIC, wrote in a paper published in the Global Policy journal last month.
“Whenever the Federal Reserve Board has embarked on periods of monetary tightening, or the opposite, loosening, the consequences on the value of the dollar and the knock-on effects have been dramatic.”
Brazil, Russia, India and China established BRIC in 2009 and the bloc became BRICS a year later when South Africa was admitted.
If it expands to include other “emerging nations with persistent surpluses,” a globally fairer, multi-currency global system could emerge, O’Neill said.
India, China march forward to internationalise their currencies
India has been making consistent efforts to replace the dollar with rupee as global reserve currency. New Delhi is offering countries facing dollar shortage to settle their trade payments in Indian rupee. The country aims to “disaster proof” countries in its immediate neighbourhood and the one with which it shares significant trade volumes.
China set up its own commodity exchange in Shanghai - the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) in 2018 for oil deliveries from countries such as Iran, Venezuela and Russia. The contracts traded in INE are solely in the Chinese renminbi.
A potential deal between China and Saudi Arabia to settle trade transactions in renminbi may further push back the US dollar from the oil territory.
Why uproar against the US dollar’s dominance in global trade?
This is because the US dollar, almost hegemonically, is a dominant force in global finance. This can be best illustrated by the US dollar’s status in global oil trading. Most of the trade is denominated in the US dollars even when neither the barrels of crude (in terms of country of origin) nor the parties trading it have anything to do with it.
According to Basel, Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements, approximately half of global trade is invoiced in US dollars.
This disproportionately large reliance on the US dollar is in spite of the United States accounting for just over a 10th of global trade.
The dollar’s dominance in global trade means the burden of dollar-denominated debt for other nations rises and falls with the exchange rate. This destabilises the economies of the countries with US monetary policy often playing a defining role than its own domestic decisions.
---
The Dollar Is In Trouble! Here Are 7 Signs That Global De-Dollarization Has Just Shifted Into Overdrive
By Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog
April 2, 2023
For decades, the U.S. dollar was the undisputed king of global currencies, but now dramatic changes are happening. China, Russia, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and other nations are making really big moves which will enable them to become much less dependent on the U.S. dollar in the years ahead. This is really bad news for us, because having the primary reserve currency of the world has enabled us to enjoy a massively inflated standard of living. Once we lose that status, our lifestyles will be much different than they are today. Unfortunately, most Americans dont understand any of this. Even though our leaders have treated the stability of our currency with utter contempt in recent years, most Americans just assume that the dollar will always reign supreme. Meanwhile, much of the planet is preparing for a future in which the U.S. dollar will be far less important than it is right now. The following are 7 signs that global de-dollarization has just shifted into overdrive҅
1. The BRICS nations account for over 40 percent of the total global population and close to one-fourth of global GDP. So the fact that they are working to develop a ”NEW CURRENCY should greatly concern all of us…
The Deputy Chairman of Russias State Duma, Alexander Babakov, said on 30 March that the BRICS bloc of emerging economies Җ Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa is working on developing a “new currency that will be presented at the organization’s upcoming summit in Durban.
“The transition to settlements in national currencies is the first step. The next one is to provide the circulation of digital or any other form of a fundamentally new currency in the nearest future. I think that at the BRICS [leaders’ summit], the readiness to realize this project will be announced, such works are underway,” Babakov said on the sidelines of the Russian-Indian Strategic Partnership for Development and Growth Business Forum.
Babakov also stated that a single currency could likely emerge within BRICS, and this would be pegged not just to the value of gold but also to “other groups of products, rare-earth elements, or soil.”
2. Two of the BRICS nations, China and Brazil, have just REACHED A DEAL TO TRADE IN THEIR OWN CURRENCIES…
The Chinese renminbi is speeding up in expanding its global use, a trend that will help build a more resilient international monetary system, one that is less dependent on the US dollar and more conducive to trade growth, experts said on Thursday.
They commented after China and Brazil - two major emerging economies and BRICS members - reportedly reached a deal to trade in their own currencies, ditching the US dollar as an intermediary.
The deal will enable China and Brazil to conduct their massive trade and financial transactions directly, exchanging the RMB for reais and vice versa, instead of going through the dollar, Agence France-Presse reported on Wednesday, citing the Brazilian government.
3. During a meeting last week in Indonesia, finance ministers from the ASEAN nations discussed ways TO REDUCE DEPENDENCIES ON THE US DOLLAR, EURO, YEN, AND BRITISH POUNDto reduce dependence on the US Dollar, Euro, Yen, and British Pound.”
An official meeting of all ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors kicked off on Tuesday (March 28) in Indonesia. Top of the agenda are discussions to reduce dependence on the US Dollar, Euro, Yen, and British Pound from financial transactions and move to settlements in local currencies.
The meeting discussed efforts to reduce dependence on major currencies through the Local Currency Transaction (LCT) scheme. This is an extension of the previous Local Currency Settlement (LCS) scheme that has already begun to be implemented between ASEAN members.
4. In a move that has enormous implications for the “petrodollar”, Saudi Arabia just agreed to become a DIALOGUE PARTNER IN THE SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION…
The state-owned Saudi Press Agency said that, in a session presided by King Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi cabinet on Tuesday approved a memorandum awarding Riyadh the status of dialogue partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization - a political, security and trade alliance that lists China, Russia, India, Pakistan and four other central Asian nations as full members.
The organization further tallies four observer states - including Iran - and nine dialogue partners, counting in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. It is headquartered in Beijing and served by Chinas Zhang Ming as secretary-general.
5. The Chinese just completed their very first trade of liquefied natural gas that was SETTLED IN CHINESE CURRENCY instead of U.S. dollars ...
China has just completed its first trade of liquefied natural gas (LNG) settled in yuan, the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange said on Tuesday.
Chinese state oil and gas giant CNOOC and TotalEnergies completed the first LNG trade on the exchange with settlement in the Chinese currency, the exchange said in a statement carried by Reuters.
The trade involved around 65,000 tons of LNG imported from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange added.
6. The government of India is offering their currency as an “alternative” to the U.S. dollar in international trade…
India will offer its currency as an alternative for trade to countries that are facing a shortage of dollars in the wake of the sharpest tightening in monetary policy by the US Federal Reserve in decades.
Facilitating the rupee trade for countries facing currency risk will help “disaster proof” them, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said during an announcement on India’s foreign trade policy Friday in New Delhi.
7. Saudi Arabia has actually agreed to ACCEPYTKENYAN SCHILLINGS as payment for oil shipments to Kenya instead of U.S. dollars…
Kenyan President William Ruto signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to buy oil for Kenyan shillings instead of US dollars.
As the US currency exchange rate hit 145.5 shillings due to increased demand by importers, President Ruto accused oil cartels of stockpiling American dollars in response to the crisis, sparking fuel shortages throughout Kenya.
10 years ago, none of these things would have happened.
But now change is happening at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking.
At this point, John Carney is warning that a fracturing of global currency reserves is “inevitable”
“[It’s] not only a serious threat, I think it is inevitable. We went through three stages, as you said, after World War II. The U.S. was the biggest economy in the world. In the 1970s, global banking became basically dollar central. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the entire world, more or less, came under the domination of the U.S dollarŔ
“That is now drifting away. China and Russia are starting to build an alternative block of currency,” John Carney explained Sunday.
Sadly, I agree with him.
As U.S. relations with both Russia and China continue to go downhill, both of those nations will have a very strong incentive to push de-dollarization even further.
And that is really bad news for the United States, because our currency is the source of our economic power and it is the most important thing that we export.
This is a story of monumental importance, but unfortunately most Americans still believe that our leaders know exactly what they are doing and that they have everything fully under control.
Section Bad Moon Rising • Section Revelations • Section NWO • Section Dying America • Section Next Recession, Next Depression •
View (1) comment(s) or add a new one •
Printable view • Link to this article •
Home •
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Bad Moon Rising Part 90 - The Iraq War 20 Years Later
As a kid GROWING UP - I believed communism was the MANIFESTATION OF EVIL, and devils ruled Russia and China, while the U.S.A. was the good guys and CAPITALISM promised PROSPERITY.
There’s enough evil to go around the planet now led by THINGS AND PEOPLE WE RATHER NOT THINK ABOUT.
Gotta hand it to CHINA. They may be full blown TOTALITARIAN, but the country’s RISE as a powerhouse in manufacturing and technology - thanks in a big part from U.S. outsourcing and offshoring GREED is remarkable. 50 years ago our big imports from China were things like toothpicks and firecrackers, while America was the high-tech leader with a growing middle class. TODAY it’s the opposite.
This year is the 20 year anniversay of the U.S. INVASION OF IRAQ - which WE KNOW WAS DONE under a lie.
Kudos for China trying to make peace in the world, while my own government DOESN’T
[T]op officials of the Bush administration mistook military power for power, a gargantuan misreading of the U.S. economic position in the world and of their moment… The attacks of September 11, 2001, that Pearl Harbor of the twenty-first century, clinched the deal.
You remember the Soviet Union, now almost 20 years in its grave. But who gives it a SECOND THOUGHT today? Even in it’s glory years that evil empire was sometimes referred to as the second superpower. In 1991, after seven decades, it suddenly disintegrated and disappeared, leaving the United States - the sole superpower, even the hyperpower, on planet Earth - surprised but triumphant.
Bush administration officials promptly suggested that they were prepared to use a newly agile American military to drain the swamp of global terrorism.
Their military ambitions, in other words, knew no bounds; nor, it seemed, did the money and resources which began to flow into the Pentagon, the weapons industries, the countrys increasingly militarized intelligence services, mercenary companies like Blackwater and KBR that grew fat on a privatizing administrations war plans and the multi-billion-dollar no-bid contracts it was eager to proffer, the new Department of Homeland Security, and a ramped-up, ever more powerful NATIONAL SECURITY STATE.
Drunk on war as Washington may be, the U.S. is still not the Soviet Union in 1991 - not yet. But it’s not the triumphant sole superpower anymore either. Its global power is visibly waning, its ability to win wars distinctly in question, its economic viability open to doubt. It has been transformed from a can-do into a cant-do nation, a fact only highlighted by the ongoing BP catastrophe and rescue in the Gulf of Mexico. Its airports are less shiny and more Third World-like every year. Unlike France or China, it has not a mile of high-speed rail. And when it comes to the FUTURE, especially the CREATION AND SUPPORT of INNOVATIVE INDUSTRIES in alternative energy, its chasing the pack. It is increasingly a low-end service economy, LOOSING good JOBS that will NEVER RETURN.
Mike Whitney WROTE IN 2006
The inescapable force of public contempt has fallen on the White House like a darkening storm-cloud. The neocon master-plan is unraveling like a spool of yarn skittering across the kitchen floor.
Bush has insinuated corruption into every molecule of the body politic. The torture and violence have removed any claim of legitimacy or moral authority. The social contract has been hacked into small bits and left to feed the crows. The government is now entirely powered by hubris and brute force, the sustenance of tyranny.
The American dream has ripened into a menacing delirium, teeming with torture, violence, and murder. We have become everything we profess to hate.
I didn’t think we can get a president worse than DUBYA.
Until the NEXT GUY, then ANOTHER, and finally THE GUY WE HAVE TODAY.
---
Andrew Bacevich on China’s Rise as Global Superpower & Decline of U.S. Empire After Iraq Invasion
Democracy Now
March 22, 2023
Transcript
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have declared a “new era” in Chinese-Russian relations after meeting in Moscow earlier this week. The two leaders reportedly discussed CHINA’S 12-POINT PROPOSAL to end the war in Ukraine, with Putin stating that Chinas plan could be the basis for a peace agreement. Though he has not yet met with Xi himself, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has recently also expressed a willingness to consider China’s peace plan. For more, we speak to Andrew Bacevich, co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, about the rise of China, as well as the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Bacevich is professor emeritus of international relations and history at Boston University and the author of ON SHEDDING AN OBSOLETE PAST: BIDDING FAREWELL TO THE AMERICAN CENTURY.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Im Amy Goodman.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has left Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two leaders declared a “new era” in Chinese-Russian relations. During a joint news conference, Putin said, quote, “Russia-China relations are at the highest point in the history of our two countries,” he said.
Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow Monday, just three days after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin, accusing him of committing war crimes in Ukraine. On Tuesday, Xi Jinping discussed China’s 12-point peace proposal to end the war in Ukraine.
PRESIDENT XI JINPING: [translated] I would like to point out that in the Ukrainian settlement, we consistently follow the principles of the U.N. Charter and stand on an objective and unbiased position. We do actively promote reconciliation and resumption of talks. Our stance is based on the very essence of the matter and on the truth. We are always for peace and dialogue. We are firmly standing on the true side of history.
AMY GOODMAN: Russian President Vladimir Putin said China’s plan could be the basis to end the war.
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: [translated] Of course, we did not ignore the situation around Ukraine. We believe that many of the provisions of the peace plan put forward by China are consonant with Russian approaches and can be taken as the basis for a peaceful settlement, when they are ready for that in the West and in Kyiv. However, so far, we see no such readiness from their side.
AMY GOODMAN: In recent weeks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed willingness to talk to Xi Jinping about ChinaҒs peace plan. A senior Ukrainian official has told CNN that discussions are underway to organize a call between the two leaders, but nothing has been set yet. Zelensky spoke in Kyiv on Tuesday.
PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY: [translated] We invited China, both publicly as well as through diplomatic channels, to participate in our peace formula. We invite China for dialogue, and we wait for a response.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby dismissed Chinas ability to be an impartial mediator between Russia and Ukraine.
JOHN KIRBY: But I don’t think you can reasonably look at China as impartial in any way. They haven’t condemned this in - this invasion. They havent stopped buying Russian oil and Russian energy. President Xi saw fit to fly all the way to Moscow, hasn’t talked once to President Zelensky, hasn’t visited Ukraine.
AMY GOODMAN: To talk about the Russia-China summit, the war in Ukraine, as well as the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, were joined by Andrew Bacevich, chair of the board and co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, retired colonel, Vietnam War veteran. Bacevich is professor emeritus of international relations and history at Boston University and author of several books, his latest, On Shedding an Obsolete Past: Bidding Farewell to the American Century.
Professor Bacevich, welcome back to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us.
ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, thank you very much.
AMY GOODMAN: There’s a lot to talk about today, from what happened 20 years ago, the U.S. invasion to Iraq, to the Ukraine war. But let’s begin in the present, this latest news of the Xi-Putin summit, the Chinese peace plan that was offered, and Zelenskys response to it. Do you see a path right now? Start off by talking about the significance of the summit.
ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, first of all, you know, we should not take at face value anything the parties say, whether we’re talking about Russia, China, Ukraine or the United States.
I think what impresses me is the evidence of Chinese diplomatic activism. And I say that also with reference to their role in bringing about the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Our diplomacy, American diplomacy, strikes me as reactive and unimaginative and ineffective. But I think Chinese diplomacy appears to be more imaginative and potentially more effective. What that says is guess what - the world is changing in important and dramatic ways with regard to the distribution of power and influence worldwide. And this simply confirms, in a sense, what we’ve always known, or known for a long time, which is that, yes, indeed, China is emerging as a global superpower on a par with the United States of America.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the peace plan that they’ve offered? And while Zelensky is not accepting that, saying it would mean that Russia would stay within the occupied areas in Ukraine, in both Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and could allow them to invade at any future point, but just the fact that he is saying, “I do want to talk with the president of China,” and has presented his own peace plan. If youve analyzed that?
ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, I haven’t analyzed it in any great detail, but I think you’re actually making the key point, that Zelensky’s willingness to talk, to hear out China, suggests an openness to China serving as the intermediary, which will make some sort of deal possible. It’s highly unlikely that there’s going to be one side that wins and the other side that loses in this conflict, even though that appears to be the expectation of the Biden administration, you know, that Ukraine will win, Russia will lose. Ain’t gonna happen. And so there has to be a compromise. And it would appear to me that Zelensky is signaling a willingness to compromise, whereas the United States is sticking to a very hardball position.
AMY GOODMAN: So, the U.S. is saying they can’t trust China, but talk about why you think China and other countries could be seminal in mediating a peace deal.
ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, I think the larger context here is one that other commentators have recognized, and that is that the Ukraine-Russia war is a proxy conflict. It’s a proxy conflict that is a subset of a larger competition between the West, led by the United States, even if our leadership is somewhat precarious - between the West and the People’s Republic of China. And again, I think what we’re seeing is assertiveness, imagination on the part of the Peoples Republic that has not met with anything comparable from the United States.
AMY GOODMAN: Andrew Bacevich, if you can talk about this moment in time? The corporate media is hardly dealing with this very significant 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the Ukraine war, you know, going on during this time. And even when the mainstream media does, it’s the same people who 20 years ago pushed, beat the drums for war, for that invasion and Iגm not just talking about Fox - in the same way political leaders, from Joe Biden to Hillary Clinton, when they were in the Senate, voted for the U.S. invasion -
ANDREW BACEVICH: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: - that President George W. Bush pushed forward. Talk about the effects of this disastrous war, where still, unlike in Afghanistan, 2,500 troops are still there.
ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, I think a preliminary question is: Why did the United States invade Iraq in the first place? And there are multiple answers to that question. I think, in many respects, the most important answer is that the Iraq War was envisioned by both the Bush administration and by proponents of the war - for example, in the media - was envisioned as a way to demonstrate that 9/11 really didn’t mean much of anything, that the United States was still the one and only global superpower, that if we sent U.S. troops to Iraq, if we beat up Saddam Hussein, overthrew Saddam Hussein, that that would suffice to erase the obvious implications of the 9/11 attacks, meaning the obvious implications being that we were far more vulnerable, far weaker than the post-Cold War claims of being the indispensable nation would seem to suggest. So, it was an effort to show that 9/11 really didn’t matter. That effort assumed that the United States would win a great, decisive, inexpensive military victory in Iraq. And, of course, that didn’t come to pass.
Here we are 20 years later. I think you’re right: There really is an unwillingness on the part of the establishment to grapple honestly with the implications of the war. And in a sense, an ironic sense, I think the Ukraine war gives the establishment a convenient opportunity to change the subject. So, you’re right: We still have U.S. forces in the Middle East. We persist in the basic structure of national security policy, spend more money on the military than the next 10 biggest military powers in the world, maintain 800-plus bases around the world, maintain these regional command headquarters, like Central Command and NATO and so on. Weve learned nothing. And that’s sad, to put it mildly, and, I think, also sets us up for a repetition of that mistake. Were in this showdown, a proxy showdown, with Russia and Ukraine. We seem to assume that Putin’s war efforts will consist entirely of conventional weapons, despite the fact, of course, that Russia possesses a massive nuclear arsenal. So, we make these convenient assumptions about the way a war is going to go, and then, of course, were utterly surprised when the war doesn’t follow the required script.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor Bacevich, you recently wrote a PIECE for The American Conservative headlined “And the winner is… Twenty years after the Iraq invasion: America’s humiliation was China’s gain.” Talk more about this.
ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, I think - I mean, I think theres no question about it, that over the past 20 years, you know, if you were - if it was a matter of stock prices, China’s stock prices have gone up, have flourished; our stock price has plummeted. We have frittered away power. We have frittered away influence. And I wouldn’t say that the Iraq War is the one and only explanation for relative American decline, but it has been a very important contributing factor. And if the imperative of the moment would include putting a floor under that decline, then it seems to me the place to begin is with an honest recounting of the Iraq War, its origins, its conduct, its implications. But theres not a heck of a lot of evidence to suggest that that honest recounting is going to happen.
AMY GOODMAN: And what do you think of the right, in terms of questioning the Iraq War, leading many to believe, you know, sort of sides are switching and shifting? There are those that are deeply questioning the Ukraine war in the peace movement, who are saying negotiation is the only solution here -
ANDREW BACEVICH: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: - fearing that this could lead to a nuclear war. But those on the right - I mean, even in Florida, DeSantis, the governor, who could be challenging Trump, saying it’s just a territorial dispute, and so many Republicans saying stop funding the war in Ukraine.
ANDREW BACEVICH: Yeah. You know, should we - as citizens, should we believe that when politicians speak in public, they are expressing a principled perspective? Or is it more likely that they’re actually saying things that reflect domestic political considerations? I have to say - and I don’t mean to be cynical - I have to say I’m in the latter camp. So, yeah, so now that Biden owns the Ukraine war, we see lots of Republicans sounding dovish, or at the very least cautious, with regard to the use of force. I’m not persuaded that the positions staked out today by Democrats and Republicans reflect principled points of view as opposed to what’s politically convenient in the moment.
AMY GOODMAN: Going back to Iraq, and in a moment we’re going to be speaking with a well-known Iraqi American who, when the U.S. invaded Iraq, left Minneapolis and said, “I don’t care if I just have to sweep the streets of my city of Najaf, I’m going to be there with my people,” and has now returned. We see that President Putin has been now charged by the International Criminal Court with war crimes. The question of where American officials should stand, not 20 years later, but even 10 or before that. President Obama was famous for saying we should always just look forward. But for culpability when it comes to the destruction of this nation of Iraq, what about George W. Bush, who - yesterday I was saying on the show - just a day after 9/11, when we know 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, was pushing his counterterrorism czar, Richard Clarke, on the issue of Iraq, How can we make that connection?” And Richard Clarke was saying back to him, “There is zero connection.” But then, what this means, what this led to? Should he also be charged with war crimes? And should others be in the dock with him?
ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, first of all, there’s no question, in my opinion, that the Iraq War, initiated by the United States, a war of choice, was a crime, a really horrid crime. Im probably easier on President Bush than many other people are. You know, I view him as an individual, really, of limited talent, to put it bluntly. He became president because his last name was “Bush.” He was an unimaginative figure and was utterly unprepared for what happened on September 11th. And his reaction, which I wouldnԒt defend, I think is primarily attributable to the associates that he chose to surround himself with. In other words, if Im looking for bad guys, I don’t begin by looking at Bush. I begin with Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and Condoleezza Rice, people who fancied themselves to be strategic thinkers. They fancied themselves to have a grasp of world politics, who believed that American military might was so great that we would sweep aside Saddam HusseinҒs forces, and some vast benefit would result. Well, they miscalculated. They were utterly wrong. And so, when Im looking for somebody to blame, I tend to blame those people more than Bush - not letting Bush of the hook. He was the commander-in-chief. But again, I think, in at least some sense, it was not his hands that were on the controls.
AMY GOODMAN: If Bush was so untalented, why couldn’t the largest antiwar movement in the world stop him? And itҒs not only in the United States. I mean, remember, February 15th, 2003, millions of people took to the streets of the world to stop the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, I don’t think Bush or anybody in the Bush administration cared about world opinion. I mean, they cared about whether or not they were going to be able to line up certain allies, like Great Britain, to support the war. In that, they succeeded. You know, shame on Tony Blair. But I don’t think world opinion factored, in a large sense, in the inner circles of Washington, D.C. But your larger question is - because I remember those. I happened to be in New York City, in Manhattan, on the day of the - was it February, I think, 15th?
AMY GOODMAN: February 15, 2003.
ANDREW BACEVICH: Moving, massive, astonishing, and I think had zero political impact. Why? Well, I think that says something about our democracy, that elites tend to bow toward the will of the people, but then, when they sit around the table and they make decisions, decisions related to war and peace, I don’t think that they think very seriously about, Well, you know, what do the folks back in Indiana think? Their calculation is shaped by considerations of power and, again, I would say, with regard to the Bush administration in 2003, when the war began, radically defective understanding of the war, understanding of ourselves, understanding of the potential of American military power. So, our leadership, elected and appointed, was stupid. The people, actually, I think, had a better grasp of the dangers that we were undertaking when we went to war with Iraq.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Andrew Bacevich, we want to thank you so much for joining us, chair of the board and co-founder of the antiwar think tank Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, retired colonel, Vietnam War veteran, professor emeritus of international relations and history at Boston University. His latest book, On Shedding an Obsolete Past: Bidding Farewell to the American Century. He’s speaking to us from Punta Gorda, Florida. We’ll link to your latest PIECE in The Boston Globe headlined The self-deceived deceivers of war.
Section Bad Moon Rising • Section Revelations • Section NWO •
View (0) comment(s) or add a new one •
Printable view • Link to this article •
Home •
